Memories from the Boat (Part Duex).

When I last left you, I was bitching about the spa treatment. I will continue my memories from the cruise with a couple of my late-night favorites.

Katie Helps Herself:
Throughout the cruise, it was not uncommon that we’d end up at the pizza bar after a night of boozing and dancing at the eternally-empty club "Medusa's Lounge" on board the Carnival Legend (Not empty because of the DJ, Shannon, who was hella-cool, but because there weren't many young, hip peeps on board. You dig?). This particular night, however, produced a truly hysterical happening.

Open 24-hours-a-day, we soon learned that the guys working the pizza buffet just didn’t like doing it. I mean, lets be honest. They’re probably dead for hours until the midnight hour hits and suddenly, they’re bombarded by drunk, hungry, stumbling, mumbling idiots…well, that and the slew of excessively obese peeps on the boat who didn’t have quite enough after breakfast, lunch, dinner, and every buffet in between!!!!! So needless to say, the cooks/servers often hung out in the kitchen, coming out only when they heard the service bell.

So, after eating a couple of slices of sausage and pepper, Katie decided she wanted one more. She approached the counter and of course, no one was there to serve her. So, rather than ring the bell, Katie decides to help herself by hoisting herself over the counter!! Upon her landing, she accidentally kicks the kitchen’s swinging door. Hearing someone coming, she ducks behind the door just as the server opens it to find no one. After he left, Katie snatched a couple more slices of pie from the glass display case and hops back over the counter. By this time, another table had decided to get in on the act by humming the theme from the Pink Panther: "DaDut, DaDut, DaDut, DaDut, DaDut, DaDut, DaDut, etc.

For the rest of the cruise, she often received shout outs in the form of "Hey, it’s the Pink Panther!" A cruise classic, I tell you!!

Julie Conquers Her Fear of Karaoke:
Those who know me best, know that I am OBSESSED with music. I have a trillion CD’s and another 5500 songs on my I-Pod. As if that wasn’t enough, I recently subscribed to Sirius Satellite Radio (mostly for Howard Stern, but the commercial-free radio is spectacular!!).

Anyway, any time Jackie and I have been out places where Karaoke is being performed, I’ve always said I was going to sing. I leaf through the book, pick out a few potentials…. And then NEVER actually go up to sing. No matter how much I had to drink, I always backed out. I would never even submit my selections. Chicken-shit, I tell you.

So after learning there would be Karaoke on the cruise I SWORE to Jackie that I would sing at least once on our journey. She was extremely skeptical, which is to be expected. But on night No. 5, I delivered on my promise.

After spending an awesome day on Barbados (the second of three ports, more on the island to follow in another blog), we discovered Karaoke being sung in the "Firebird Lounge" when we got back on the boat. Around 9ish, we stumble in and take a seat in the front of the fairly crowded venue. I scoped out a selection and was called to sing about 15 minutes later.

Keep in mind, the three of us are absolutely ham-ski!! We had drank all night on Barbados and were in just the right form to do Karaoke. I insisted the girls let me sing and they could dance. Well, I took the stage to perform—under the name Lady J, of course—and proceeded to belt out Madonna’s "Like a Virgin". As I was singing, Jackie and Katie were encouraging audience participation, practically lap-dancing people in the front row!! Remember, we’re loaded.

Well, I get through the song and was pretty darn good, if I do say so myself. I think I got a pretty good ovation and it was because I was one of the few who sang completely in tune and actually performed the song. Most of the other participants stood directly in front of the prompter and didn’t move. I was dancing, pointing, closing my eyes on high notes. Singing with utter confidence. It was truly a sight to be seen.
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I hate to leave you again, but I’m at work and actually have to rush out to do some…well, WORK!! I will try to write more over the weekend!! There’s just so much to cover!! This could seriously take a long, long, long, time…ski. (Katie was a big fan of the delayed ski, particularly when exclaiming: "What the fuck…ski".
In the mean time, check out Part 1 below, if you haven’t already. Peace-ski.